Some take, some leave new liquor-sales hours

By Fausto Giovanny Pinto

Updated
12:14 am EDT, Sunday, July 5, 2015

A customers exits Julianne's Wines & Liquors in Bridgeport, Conn., on Thursday July 2, 2015. A new state law lets liquor stores stay open until 10 p.m. if they want to, instead of 9 p.m. Note the placard with the store's old hours at left. less

A customers exits Julianne's Wines & Liquors in Bridgeport, Conn., on Thursday July 2, 2015. A new state law lets liquor stores stay open until 10 p.m. if they want to, instead of 9 p.m. Note the placard with ... more

A customers exits Julianne's Wines & Liquors in Bridgeport, Conn., on Thursday July 2, 2015. A new state law lets liquor stores stay open until 10 p.m. if they want to, instead of 9 p.m. Note the placard with the store's old hours at left. less

A customers exits Julianne's Wines & Liquors in Bridgeport, Conn., on Thursday July 2, 2015. A new state law lets liquor stores stay open until 10 p.m. if they want to, instead of 9 p.m. Note the placard with ... more

BRIDGEPORT — Unintentionally, Rosalino Poblano and his buddy were possibly the first people in the city to take advantage of a new law.

Just past 9 p.m. on Wednesday, Poblano was riding in a car traveling up Fairfield Avenue through Black Rock when he noticed the bright red lights still shining, “WINES & LIQUORS.”

Poblano, 39, knew the store should have been closed, but with the lights glowing from inside Julianne’s Wines & Liquors, the landscapers pulled over to purchase some drinks for an evening of watching a soccer match between Mexico and Honduras.

They bought a six-pack of Modelo Especial — “the good ones,” Poblano said — at 9:05 p.m.

With that purchase and others like it across the state, a new era began.

The law that went into effect Wednesday gives Connecticut liquor stores and markets an extra hour to sell alcohol — from 9 p.m. to 10 p.m. — Monday through Saturday, and extends Sunday hours from 5 p.m. to 6 p.m.

“I’m going to spend more money,” Poblano joked, when told about the law, which was signed by Gov. Dannel P. Malloy.

“He needs more money, taxes,” Poblano’s friend said of Malloy.

Later in the hour, a man who gave his name only as Sean entered the store, matching head to toe — new red-and-white Nike LeBron sneakers, red-and-white Chicago Bulls T-shirt and Bulls fitted hat.

“You guys open an extra hour, you ’bout to make an extra $10,000,” he shouted at the register.

Everybody was talking about the new law, Sean said, before he impatiently asked the store manager for cups, cranberry juice and Pepsi.

“I’m taking it down with some ladies,” he said, smoothly, as he walked out with those goods and a small bottle of Hennessey.

By 9:30, a couple bought a bottle of E&J Brandy to go with the Chinese takeout they were getting next door, a man in cargo shorts and a T-shirt came for a can of beer, and another man bought two 12-packs of Corona for a bachelor party.

At 9:45 p.m. the manager, Tehseen Hussain, called it quits, with only four customers in 45 minutes of the extra hour.

“Not a lot of people were aware,” Hussain said. He said he had been telling customers as they came into store throughout the day. But the sign in front still advertised a 9 p.m. closing time.

For some, 9 is late enough

Other liquor stores in the area decided not to stay open the extra hour, saying it wouldn’t help their bottom line.

Keith Coley, owner of Fairfield Wine & Spirits, said his shop will close at 9 p.m.

Between 9 and 9:10 p.m. on Thursday, only two customers had entered Hussain’s shop, and he said he was only going to stay open until 10 p.m. from Thursday through Saturday.

“New law is in effect, right?” Bakr said as he walked into the store in sweatpants and T-shirt.

“We are open,” said Hussain, seemingly tired from both work and hearing about the law.

Bakr got a bottle of Amsterdam Vodka and looked for cranberry juice. With a day off Friday from his job delivering oil, he was having a get-together. After leaving the store, he returned for a single, ice-cold Heineken.

By 9:30 p.m., the shop had seen six extra customers, mostly men. But one older woman entered, carrying a Native American-patterned purse and wearing white ballet flats, jeans, a floral print blouse and her signature piece — a black-and-white plaid cowboy hat that accented her gray hair.

Her purchase: a 40-ounce Colt 45, 100 ML of E&J Brandy and a nip of Ciroc Vodka.

“As long as it’s for the adults and not for the kids,” the woman said of the new law. She declined to give her name saying, “People don’t need to know I drink.”

Jaileen Rivera followed a few minutes later, accompanied by an older woman carrying a small black Chihuahua as if it were an infant.

“It’s wonderful,” Rivera said of the extra hour, as she walked out with a six-pack.

Pushing the limit

Three rambunctious women said they had driven through the South End and West Side of the city and couldn’t find a liquor store open late. The came from partying at Downtown Thursday’s at McLevy Green and wanted to continue celebrating, since it was one of the women’s birthday. Two of them went half on a bottle.

Nicole Feraca entered around 9:45 p.m., and summed up the influx of people who decided, given the extra hour, they would still wait for the last 15 minutes.

“Procrastinators procrastinate more,” said Feraca who, along with her roommate, bought two six-packs of beer and a bottle of wine to continue hanging out at home.

Dee Hernandez, her roommate, recently moved to Connecticut from New York, and assumed that liquor stores here stayed open until midnight.

“It’s terrible,” Hernandez said of the 9 p.m. closing time. Staying open until 10 p.m. is somewhat better, she said.

In the first two days of the new law, there was perhaps no customer more grateful than Yenniferr Perez, who entered Julianne’s at 9:58 p.m.

“I got to 10 o’clock — I made it!” she shouted and danced down the aisle. “I made it, I made it!”

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